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Topic: Hardware selection help (Read 548 times)

I am relatively new to this whole robotics thing. I have tons of experience in mechanics so building the robots is no problem. I also have software and programming experience in difference language and engineering programs. However I am lacking in the computer hardware and programming of the hardware division. I am considering starting a Dex hand project of which I have all of the mechanics mapped out. It will have around 10-16 servos depending on how indepth I get. I will also need to read in control inputs from sensors connnected to a control glove (most likely accelerometers. I was wondering when talking about this level of coding would I be able to use a microcontroller or would I need to advance to a single board? Thanks

I guess that you by "a single board" means an SBC (Single Board Computer), as you'll need a board for whatever microcontroller you may choose.A certain size of (modern) microcontroller can hold more than the SBC's of "yesterday" and the SBC's of today can be counted in PC-104's and the ITX family (complete PC's in very small sizes) , which you don't need.Microcontrollers comes in a wide variety of sizes and clock speeds, from a few MHz to several hundred MHz.

I'm not sure what you're hoping to gain from using several accelerometers?A single one and some flex sensors should be adequate, better top off with a gyro, if you want to go all out.

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Regards,Søren

A rather fast and fairly heavy robot with quite large wheels needs what? A lot of power?Please remember...Engineering is based on numbers - not adjectives

I will be using multiple accelerometers to get more accurate hand motions. By mutliple I will be using at least one per finger on the control glove to get an accurate reading of the rotation of the hand. I was planning on using some flex sensors but as far as I have found very few flex sensors have data on output voltage vs. flex of the sensor where as mapping the rotation with an acceleromter is rather easy.

Yes I was refering to a SBC and thank you for clearing up that I will not require this I am pretty behind on software to hardware interface as everything I have done through my education used labview or matlab code but I do know C. I do know however there is know way I will be able to rub Labview on a microcontroller.

Okay new question and didnt want to start a new topic and clutter the forums. I am obviously new to robotics and dont have any equipment. I am looking at doing projects that use lots of servos (including but not limited to the dex hand). Since I am inexperienced in the electronics/programming aspects would it be more beneficial to get a microcontroller and build from that ie plain AVR or PIC chip or an augmented board such as the Axon or others? Thanks for any help again.

I do know however there is know way I will be able to rub Labview on a microcontroller.

Well, if the budget allow, you could take a look at the Pico-ITX (100x72mm), or the Nano-ITX (120x120mm)You can get smaller PC-standard boards, but I don't know where to get them, the Pico and Nano should be easy to find.You'll have to look into whether they got the power to run Labview though.

Having said that... If you plan to get into automation, you really need to be able to program controllers directly.

Logged

Regards,Søren

A rather fast and fairly heavy robot with quite large wheels needs what? A lot of power?Please remember...Engineering is based on numbers - not adjectives